TEE 00 LO GIST. 



39 



The Condor. 



BY Cr. STUART SMITH. 



fTHE birds of the t'aniily Vithiiridoi are of 

 large size and gluttonous habits. Their 

 cliief susteiiant'c is derived IVom animal 

 matter in a slight state of deconipositioii, 

 and they are not nnfreqnently gregarious. 

 Tiiey have been fiil'ted with great powei's 

 of flight, which they use continually, unless 

 indolently resting after an ample meal. 

 They rear their young among inaccessible 

 precipices, feeding them by emptying the 

 unsavory contents of their own crops, not 

 possessing talons strong enough to carry 

 their prey, as do the Hawks and Eagles. 

 The members of this family are distributed 

 in almost every quarter of the wcjrlu, but 

 are more abundant in tropical countries, 

 where their services are most needed. 



The (Jondor is the largest of this group, 

 measuring from three to five feet long, and 

 generally eleven or twelve in extent, but in- 

 stances are on record of specimens being 

 captured whose extent was eighteen I'eet ! 

 The bill projects sti-aight forward, but at 

 the extremity curves sharply downward, 

 the U{)per mandible having a somewhat sin- 

 uous or S-!ike outline by reason of a high 

 prottdjerance (ju the upper side. The fe- 

 male is nuich browner than her consort, and 

 is much smaller in size — an unusual circum- 

 stance among the Rapton'a. 



Many have magnitied the Condor til! he 

 almost rivalled the Roc of Arabian tradition 

 and great was their disappointment at the 

 first view of the bird in possession of the 

 Zoological Society of London. 1 followed 

 the general fate of those who anticipated too 

 greatly, when visiting London, a few years 

 ago. I went to see the Society's valuable 

 menagerie, and instead of finding a terrible 

 scavenger of the air, I saw a plain, sombre 

 looking bird of lai'ge dimensions, perched 

 upon a rock in the center of a large cage, 

 his naked head otdy showing above his col- 

 lai- of long tawny feathers, and seemingly 

 oblivious to the unceasing attempts of the 



visitors to make him move. The old fel- 

 low's patience at last became exhausted, 

 when, stretching out his ugly neck and head 

 entirely devoid of feathers, he turned a glar- 

 ing eye on his tormenters ; suddenly he ex- 

 panded his enormous wings to the length of 

 eleven feet (by actual measurement), they 

 seeming half as large again for our proxim- 

 ity, and paying no heed to the suddenly ut- 

 tered cries of admiration, walked distlain- 

 i'uUy to the farthest corner of his cage with 

 a most awkward swaying gait. Some vis- 

 itors soon threw some morsels of food to 

 him, all of which he swallowed greedily, 

 afterwards ejecting such pieces as did not 

 suit his tastes. 



The Condor inhabits the loftiest of the 

 Andes, and its aerial gyrations are exer- 

 cised far above every other living creature. 

 According to Humboldt, it soars to the vast 

 height of six perpendicular miles, watchful- 

 ly surveying the airy dej)ths below for its 

 aciMistomed prey with telescopic eye. There 

 on the verge of perpetual snows, they perch 

 on the naked rocks, silently reposing like 

 melancholy spectres, the otdy animate ob- 

 jects in this death-like landscape. 



\\\ these dreary solitudes they rear their 

 y(uuig, depositing their eggs on the bare 

 rock, unprotected l)y any boi'der. The pe- 

 riod of incubation is fifty-four days, as has 

 been proven by a female once in the pos- 

 session of the London Society. The chick, 

 if such it may l)e called, grew rapidly for 

 a month, when it suddenly died. The fol- 

 lowing is an extract froiu the Proceedings 

 of the Society, July 21, 1.S4G : "The 

 young Condor, after thriving well to all 

 appearance, died tliis morning. * * The 

 good hen * * seemed to miss it much. * 

 The cry of the young Condor resembled the 

 squeak of a rat," Between 1844 and 1847 

 the feniiile laid seven eggs, of a white col- 

 or, but covered with a slight calcareous de- 

 posit. None of these with the exception of 

 the above, were hatched, and the female 

 soon after died. 



The Iiulians capture the birds by expos- 

 ing a dead horse or cow, and although no 

 bird may be in sight, the Condors are soon 



